Page 159 - Suape 45 Anos

The sustainable and environmental DNA of the company

The past and the future of the Suape Port and Industrial Com- cal preservation in the complex.
plex, from its initial conception to the plans for the next ten years, After this came projects involving reforestation with mango and
involve sustainability and environmental preservation. An impor- cashew trees, at a time when there was no legal obligation to provide
tant witness to this history is Durázio Siqueira, a biologist in the Sus- environmental compensation. Even so, Suape took the initiative of
tainability Department, who has been working at the port for over starting a project that benefited the local population by planting fruit
four decades. trees and providing support for what was then called the Brazilian
- Caring for the environment is in Suape’s DNA. From its incep- Institute of Forest Development (IBDF), an organization which would
tion, the project required the State Government to hire a group of later merge with others to become what is now the Brazilian Institute
researchers to study the region in depth from an ecological point of of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).
view, involving urban ecology, synecology and autecology. The beginning of the provision of environmental compensation
Fifty-nine percent of the Suape Complex’s 17,300 hectares is set by the State Environment Agency (CPRH) saw the emergence of
aside for environmental preservation in what is called an Ecological projects such as Forest Corridors, designed by Durázio to join to-
Preservation Zone (ZPEC). Situated in the municipalities of Ipojuca gether remnants of the forest previously separated by wasteland.
and Cabo de Santo Agostinho, the area covers the Atlantic Forest - We managed to join together remnants that had been cut off
biome and related ecosystems: mangroves and restinga. This inclu- by sugar plantations for hundreds of years, sections of forest that
des important conservation units such as the Bita Ecological Sta- had been separated. The corridor enables the flow of genes bet-
tion and Utinga, which have increased the level of environmental ween plants that had previously been isolated, increasing the fores-
protection of the Suape State National Park, the Mata do Zumbi and ted area and avoiding depletion of the gene pool.
Mata de Duas Lagoas State Parks, along with the Rivers Pirapama Durázio is still working with conservation of natural environ-
and Jaboatão Estuary Environmental Protection Area and the Ipo- ments as a technical consultant for forest restoration in ZPEC areas.
juca-Merepe Area of Significant Ecological Interest. The aim is to conclude this project by 2035. Another pioneering
Durázio points to Suape’s capacity to adapt sustainably to chan- project currently underway involves Suape’s native and synanthro-
ges and to the passage of time. The ZPEC itself, for example, has pic fauna. The work includes a survey of animals present in the re-
seen some changes in its geometry without diminishing its size. gion, and of the ecological dynamics that they create. Within Suape
One particular milestone in this regard was Decree n 8,447, of 1983, and elsewhere, Durázio is a shining example of the importance of
o
which was published two years after Durázio arrived in Suape and remembering, recording and showing great respect for the natural
approved norms relating to land-use, use of services, and ecologi- environment.

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